Konstantin Zaharchenko American aircraft designer Date of Birth: 29.01.1900 Country: USA

1. Biography of Konstantin Zakharchenko
2. Arrival in the United States

Biography of Konstantin Zakharchenko

Konstantin Zakharchenko, an American aircraft designer, was born on January 17, 1899, in the city of Lublin, which was part of the Russian Empire's Kingdom of Poland. He completed his education at the Kiev Gymnasium in 1916 and then enrolled in the Naval School in Petrograd.

During the summer of 1917, Zakharchenko participated in his first naval combat as a guard marine. Later that year, he was sent, along with other cadets, to Vladivostok for further training and service on the auxiliary cruiser "Oryol." When the October Revolution occurred, the ship was in Nagasaki. The crew learned about the revolution and successfully disarmed the mutineers, including Zakharchenko. The ship then sailed to Hong Kong, where it came under the control of the White Guard command. Zakharchenko remained with the crew of the "Oryol," which was incorporated into Admiral Kolchak's fleet in 1918. However, the ship was disarmed and converted into a training transport. In December 1919, the ship returned to Vladivostok. During his service on the "Oryol," Zakharchenko was promoted to the rank of midshipman and awarded the Order of St. George, 4th class. In 1920, after Kolchak's defeat, the "Oryol" sailed to the Mediterranean, and Zakharchenko and part of the crew disembarked in Calcutta.

Arrival in the United States

Zakharchenko decided to emigrate to the United States and traveled from Calcutta to New York, where he received assistance from the Naval Mission at the Russian Embassy. In 1921, he enrolled in the Aeronautical Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While still a student, starting from 1923, he worked for various aviation companies, beginning his career as a draftsman.

After earning his engineering degree in aerospace engineering in 1925, Zakharchenko became the chief designer at the small aviation firm "Kaess Aircraft" located on Long Island and owned by eccentric millionaire and American aviation patron Charles Albert Levine. In the summer of 1926, Zakharchenko invited his comrade from the Petrograd Naval School, aviation engineer Ilya Islamov, to join the company. Together, they built a twin-engine biplane, but due to Levine's whims, the aircraft was never completed, and the firm closed. In parallel, Zakharchenko worked at the "Wright Aeronautical Corporation," a firm founded by the Wright brothers.

In 1928, James McDonnell proposed to his former MIT classmates, Konstantin Zakharchenko and James S. Cullin, to start their own firm. On November 15, 1929, they successfully flew the two-seat sports-touring aircraft they designed, called the "Doodlebug." However, due to the Great Depression, the enterprise had to be shut down.

In the early 1930s, Zakharchenko served as the deputy chief designer to Boris Vyacheslavovich Korvin-Krukovsky at the "Edo Aircraft Corporation" in College Point. The company was involved in the production of seaplanes and their components.

In 1934, representatives from the Republic of China approached Zakharchenko with an offer to establish an aviation design bureau and a contract to develop and build a series of all-metal bombers. Zakharchenko accepted the offer and, in July 1934, he, along with three other American aviation engineers, traveled from California to Guangdong.